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Daily Archives: April 20, 2017

How Does CBO Estimate the Effects of Proposed Legislation Affecting Immigration?

How Does CBO Estimate the Effects of Proposed Legislation Affecting Immigration? Posted by Sam Papenfuss on March 27, 2017

‘When CBO’s Director testified at Congressional hearings at the beginning of February, he was asked some questions about how CBO analyzes potential changes to immigration policy. Because answers during Congressional hearings must be brief, this blog post provides additional information. What Factors Does CBO Consider When Estimating the Economic Effects of Proposed Legislation Affecting Immigration? In 2013, CBO published an economic analysis of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744). That act would have revised laws governing immigration and the enforcement of those laws, allowing for a significant increase in the number of noncitizens who could lawfully enter the United States permanently or temporarily. The bill also would have created a process for many currently unauthorized residents to gain legal status, subject to their meeting conditions specified in the bill. CBO’s economic analysis was based on the agency’s cost estimate of S. 744. Both analyses, which were conducted in collaboration with the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, illustrate the types of effects that CBO examines when legislative proposals would have a substantial effect on the economy. Relative to current law, enacting S. 744 would have:

  • Increased the population, the size of the labor force, and employment;
  • Decreased average wages through 2024 and increased them thereafter;
  • Slightly raised the unemployment rate through 2020;
  • Boosted the amount of capital investment;
  • Raised the productivity of labor and of capital; and
  • Resulted in higher interest rates

House Doc – Principles for Reforming the Military Selective Service Process

Principles for Reforming the Military Selective Service Process Pursuant to Public Law 114-328, SEC. 555(c)(1). House Document 115–27, April 3, 2017. Via FAS – Steven Aftergood: “The Nation must prepare to mitigate an unpredictable global security and national emergency environment,” the White House said in a report to Congress this month. The report, transmitted by… Continue Reading

Trump Sued for Revoking Protections for Wolves, Bears in Alaska

Lawsuit Is First to Challenge Constitutionality of Congressional Review Act – “In the first constitutional challenge of its kind, the Center for Biological Diversity today sued the Trump administration for repealing protections for wolves, bears and other wildlife on Alaska’s national wildlife refuges. President Trump signed legislation on April 3 — rushed through Congress under… Continue Reading

Arctic Ocean as a dead end for floating plastics in North Atlantic branch of Thermohaline Circulation

The Arctic Ocean as a dead end for floating plastics in the North Atlantic branch of the Thermohaline Circulation. Science Advances 19 Apr 2017: Vol. 3, no. 4, e1600582. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600582 “The subtropical ocean gyres are recognized as great marine accummulation zones of floating plastic debris; however, the possibility of plastic accumulation at polar latitudes… Continue Reading

35 Years Of American Death and Patterns of Death in the South in Shadow of Slavery

FiveThirtyEight – 35 Years Of American Death Mortality rates for leading causes of death in every U.S. county from 1980 to 2014: “Researchers have long argued that where we live can help predict how we die. But how much our location affects our health is harder to say, because death certificates, the primary source for… Continue Reading

CJPP Launches Criminal Justice Debt Reform Builder

“Criminal justice debt – the result of fees and fines in the criminal justice system – has serious consequences. The Criminal Justice Debt Reform Builder brings transparency to this area of significant legal complexity: it gives easier access to state laws that govern criminal justice debt and suggests policy solutions through the Criminal Justice Policy… Continue Reading

Paper – Notice and Takedown in Everyday Practice

Urban, Jennifer M. and Karaganis, Joe and Schofield, Brianna L., Notice and Takedown in Everyday Practice (March 22, 2017). UC Berkeley Public Law Research Paper No. 2755628. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2755628 [via Mary Whisner] “It has been nearly twenty years since section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act established the so-called notice and takedown… Continue Reading

AltGov2 – Trump’s Ambassadors: Financial Disclosures

Trump’s Ambassadors: Financial Disclosures by Russ Kick · April 19, 2017 “Nominees for high-level positions have to file financial disclosures and ethics agreements with the Office of Government Ethics. For some reason, the OGE posts these revealing documents for only the highest-paid officials. Ambassadors don’t earn enough to get posted, so their disclosures have to… Continue Reading

UAlbany Launches Project to Digitize History of Executions in the United States

“The M. Watt Espy Papers, execution files on more than 15,000 legal executions in the United States since 1608, are getting a digital makeover. Hailed by the New York Times as “America’s foremost death penalty historian,” M. Watt Espy (1933-2009) devoted more than 40 years to cataloging each legal execution since the founding of the… Continue Reading

HBR – Using Blockchain to Keep Public Data Public

Harvard Business Review – Data is under attack by Brian Forde is senior lecturer for bitcoin and blockchain at the MIT Sloan School of Management “…The Obama administration drastically increased the openness of government data, codifying it with an executive order that made open, machine-readable data the new default for government information, to ensure that we have transparency… Continue Reading